Tirzah released her excellent debut album Devotion in 2018. Since, she’s released two singles earlier this year called “Sink In” and “Send Me,” and today’s she’s released her third called “Tectonic.” Her flinty dance music can be both unexpectedly intimate and hard—her latest track is no exception with bulging drums, mumbled singing, and cries landing between an airy flute or irritated steam engine. “When you touch me / I’m out my body,” she repeats robotically. There’s an understated intensity that pulls at the seams of Tirah’s words.
The song comes with the news of her anticipated sophomore album, which is named Colourgrade and is scheduled for October 1. Collaborating again with Mica Levi (who produced Devotion) , Coby Sey, and Kwes, she described the follow-up as a raw effort. In a new interview she revealed, “Maybe it’s a reflection of the age that we’re at as well, we’re taking our time but we’re not trying to make everything neat and fit. It’s sort of unpolished. I’ve left it as alone as much as possible, basically, like a warts-and-all attitude towards it. But I hope it doesn’t mean it’s not generous and that we haven’t bothered. It’s just trying to be as truthful with our arrangement of three as possible.”
The forthcoming album was recorded in the short time after giving birth to her first child and before her second. She added, “One of the things I wanted to get across was the comedic value of new motherhood,” she said. “That whole spiritual side to becoming a parent is so huge, but there’s also such comedy and mundanity in what your life becomes—it’s literally just laundry and bums. And that all comes with the joy of it, because it’s so funny and nuts, but you know you’ll look back and think of those endless days of washing clothes and bottles.”
Watch the entrancing video for “Tectonic” below. Pre-order Colourgrade here.
